International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy

Fa’a Sāmoa Criminology: An Aspect of Pacific Criminology Counternarrative

Moses Faleolo — 2024-09-01

Criminological imagination requires that criminologists adopt multiple perspectives on their study subjects, shifting backwards and forwards between the personal and remote, the micro and the macro, or the theoretical and the empirical. Criminology should thus be ‘refractive’ (Frauley 2015: 21), harnessing the multi-perspectivism of social life to produce fuller, sharper analyses that reveal links between individual lives, social structures, and historical context. One such perspective is fa’a Sāmoa criminology. Not much is known about this worldview or its relationship with criminology, let alone its application as a credible epistemology. This article argues that Western criminology is not the only way to generate new knowledge and recommended solutions and that instead fa’a Sāmoa criminology offers an alternative way. Two qualitative case studies demonstrate how Sāmoan thinking and doing applies in the contexts of Sāmoan young people’s interaction with the youth justice system and hard-to-reach gang-involved Sāmoan peoples. Key implications are highlighted and recommended.

Fa'avae: A Samoan Theory of Crime from the ‘South’ Pacific

Sam Amosa — 2024-09-01

This article presents an interdisciplinary theory on the causes of crime in Samoa. The theory utilises a cultural practice of building the foundation - fa’avae - of a Samoan house, to explain the causes of crime and to articulate a crime prevention strategy from the nuances of the word fa’avae. The interdisciplinary nature of this theory considers two main aspects of the Samoan life of God and family (aiga) to describe both the causes of crime in Samoa, and a way forward to restore aiga and community fractured by crime. The theory calls upon the church through church ministers – faifeau – to become active in the public sphere. This entails speaking out about the causes of crime and working in collaboration with other stakeholders in devising culturally appropriate crime prevention approaches for Samoa, likely to also be familiar to other ‘South’ Pacific nations.

Culture, Religion and Domestic Violence: Reflections on Working with Fiji and Tuvalu Communities

Sara N Amin — 2024-09-01

While domestic violence (DV) has been understood as a form of gendered violence linked to patriarchal power, postcolonial and indigenous feminist criminologies have underscored that DV needs to be understood also in relation to the interactions and entanglements between colonialism, class, race, nation, gender and religion. Moreover, such interventions require questioning Western and secular assumptions and reductions of culture, tradition and non-modern (read ‘non-Western’) epistemologies and faith as reserves of mainly patriarchal power. This paper reflects within three practitioner spaces on efforts against DV in Fiji and Tuvalu and how these critiques and interventions are mobilised in practice and with community interactions. We draw on the varied experiences of the three of us (educator, counsellor and police officer) to explore how we are embedded in various forms of translation and border-crossing work, especially in relation to assumptions, practices and knowledge linked to culture, religion and rights in relation to DV.

The Police Practice of Resolving Domestic Violence in Fiji

Anand Chand — 2024-09-01

Using the plural policing and Global South policing frameworks, this article examines police officers' actions when handling domestic violence (DV) cases in Fiji. Drawing on an empirical survey of 365 police officers, it discusses what police do when dealing with DV reports. The findings show, firstly, that the majority of police officers are aware of the zero-tolerance policy for DV. Secondly, the majority of police officers assert they do not implement the zero-tolerance policy when handling DV cases. Thirdly, police officers take DV cases seriously. Fourthly, officers say they encourage people to use traditional customary and religious ways of settling cases and proceed with further investigation and possible prosecution only if the victim insists. Theoretically, the findings show that police practise a plural policing method of resolving DV. The article empirically and theoretically contributes to the literature on plural policing of DV in Pacific Island countries.

Solomon Islands Police Perceptions of Australian and New Zealand Policing Assistance

Casandra Harry — 2024-09-01

Police reform is a critical component of peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and reintroducing stability in countries emerging from conflict. The assumption is that without a secure environment and a security system, sustained peace, political, economic, and cultural rebuilding is impossible. Ethnic conflict in the Solomon Islands between 1998–2003 resulted in reform of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF), carried out by the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI). This institutional reconfiguration has been presented by the Solomon Islands government and RAMSI as a success and the gold standard for reforms in the Pacific. Despite this, internal stakeholder perspectives on the effectiveness and appropriateness of post-conflict institutional reform are absent. This work analyses and explores reflections and experiences of reform held by RSIPF officers at the mission’s culmination. It interrogates critical reflections on the changes during reform, examines key concerns and drawbacks, and advances literature on post-conflict scholarship.

Sasa’a le fafao?: Approaches to Return and Reintegration of Criminal Deportees (Returnees) into Samoa

Henrietta McNeill — 2024-09-01

Pacific Island states face high levels of criminal deportations arriving from the United States, Australia and New Zealand—with the expectation that returnees will simply reintegrate. However, reintegration into a country that individuals often do not remember, or know the language or cutural protocols of, can be difficult. Returnees may face social stigma and/or subsequent surveillance and legal requirements on their return: the latter known in scholarly literature as ‘crimmigration creep’. In this article, we examine the case of Samoa, which has taken a unique culture-centric approach to reintegration through the establishment of the quasi-governmental Samoa Returnees Charitable Trust, rejecting external ‘one-size-fits-all’ approaches. We argue that this exertion of Samoa’s agency has led to a delay in crimmigration creep.

Using the Past to Guide the Future: Criminal Deportee (Re)integration in a New Homeland

Moana Hafoka — 2024-09-01

The United States regularly deports individuals to Tonga due to criminal convictions, and these deportees often struggle to reintegrate into Tongan society. This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of 12 such criminal deportees through semi-structured interviews to elicit participants’ personal stories of deportation and transition. Common themes of family, religion, and Tongan culture emerged in their responses. These results are discussed, as well as recommendations to aid deportees. The study emphasizes that successful deportee reintegration can be facilitated with the collaboration of government, religious groups, and families.

Mediation in Matters Involving Sorcery in PNG Villages and Remote Australian Indigenous Communities

Craig Jones — 2024-09-01

The article discusses the application of mediation to conflict involving sorcery and sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea (PNG) villages and remote Australian Indigenous communities. The article proposes that a Hybrid Mediation Approach to managing this form of conflict can be effective. This approach re-imagines the stages of mediation not as fixed or rigid steps but as design parameters that empower the parties through incorporating local values and traditions into the dispute management process. The hybrid element of the approach refers to the incorporation of local values and traditions into the mediation design. The article makes reference to specific examples of sorcery-related conflict at the remote Australian community of Aurukun and a village in PNG to provide a background to this discussion of effective mediation techniques.

Competing Visions and Converging Realities? Justice and Security Governance in Post-Conflict Bougainville and Solomon Islands

Sinclair Dinnen — 2024-09-01

This article examines narratives and practices of post-conflict recovery in Bougainville and Solomon Islands respectively, with particular emphasis on the governance of justice and security. The original visions and pathways to recovery differed markedly in each case. Drawing on local strengths, including traditional leadership and customary practices of reconciliation, was integral to Bougainville’s aspirations for peacebuilding and the shaping of its post-conflict social and political order. Under the auspices of a major Australian-led regional intervention, Solomon Islands followed a more conventional state building approach that made few concessions to the significance of local non-state social institutions and actors in relation to justice and security. Despite these initial divergences, recent years have seen growing areas of convergence in both places, notably around acknowledging the importance of practical hybridity between state and non-state forms of justice and security governance.

Epilogue

Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni — 2024-09-01

Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni and Tuivalu Lauganiu present an Epilogue for this special issue on Pacific Criminology

The Emergence of a Pacific Criminology

Moses Faleolo — 2024-09-01

TBC